A Night at the Movies
The levee has broken after a night of Americana .....the writing will come.
When you were a kid you went to the movies and it was a big day in the life of a say.......a 10 year old. We got into the cimema for .50. When ticket prices hit a buck, when I was teen, we were pissed. Gasoline was also about .50 way back then in the early 70's. Yes, I'm an old guy. The gallon of gas is now $4.09 and a movie ticket costs $9.50. The movie probably makes more money........even though movies are not necessities.
That's America.
Every Friday, 52 times this year, there are big theatrical releases into the 2008 movie going market. It will never end. Hollywood will live longer than cockroaches. They're good at what they do and we buy it, all of it, the good and the bad. How many previews of movies have you seen that tell you, "I won't be seeing that movie."? I love movies but there are far more bad movies than good. Fifty-two Fridays are hard to fill.
I'm not an action movie guy. I prefer dialogue and a well written story over testosterone driven special effects, stunts, volume, carnage and technology. There is still art in movies even if artsy sometimes gets in the way of a good story. Tonight I saw an action movie at the theatre. I believe Robert Downey Jr is the attraction of this movie because the Hollywood slacker with many black eyes though addiction in his troubled life.... seems to be making a comeback. We're curious. Whoever the casting director was for Iron Man did an awesome job for the lead.......genius playboy businessman turned superhero. There is no actor who could do a better job in this cool movie. Iron man is worth seeing if you're into movies that are better than most in their genre.
I'm a Netflix customer, I get 2-4 movies per month but mostly get classics like Hitchcock, Bogart and best pictures from years ago. There are grand cinematic endeavors like 'The Ten Commandments' and subtle masterpieces like "Last Tango in Paris" which was my last Netflix picture. I think the best movie making 'as art' is behind us but there will always be memorable new artistic films...if we ever hear about them. They just don't sell as many tickets as Iron man.
Sometimes an actor alone can make a movie with an individual performance. Either way, the film is worth watching. That's how I feel about Downey in this action flick. There will be no awards but he does a very likeable job in an entertaining movie that has cool technology, special affects and a very modern artistic style.
An old Quentin Tarantino film is arriving tomorrow........